laura705

Yay, Friday!  Yay, payday - the reason I sit here all day every day. 

I was cranky going home yesterday because right at the end of the day the boss sent a meeting invitation to me and the new admin about a matter I’m working on with the new admin.  Uh, if there was an issue, why not come to me?  I’m feeling much relieved now because the boss and I discussed it and she had the same thought.  She is irritated at both the admins at the moment.  She’s (still) trying to get them to go to the person with whom they are working to communicate and get things done.  She said that she’s made it clear that they can work through her - but they won’t like it…  She’s also peeved that they’re mostly whining and not bringing up valid issues, and that the lead admin is probably being a bad influence on the new admin.  Oh the joy.  At the moment I’m working on a lot of things independently and I guess that’s a good thing!  I have to remember this stuff when I’m not included in some of the meetings and feeling left out and/or paranoid about it. 

Aside from work…Lunch was subway.  Last night was no gym, shame shame.  BF and I had tacos for dinner.  I located a podiatry practice in my area and have an appointment a week from Monday.  Been there a long time, and has several podiatrists there, so it should work out alright.

I was going to make a stop on the train home today to buy some planters that the store near our house didn’t have in stock.  But I phoned the other store and they didn’t have them in stock either (so much for their inventory records).  Another store has some, but the store’s in a marginal neighborhood in the city nowhere near home or my train.  Darn.  I knew I should have bought them when I saw them, even in the color I didn’t want.  I could have just painted them.  Bf has a friend who lives not far from there and he said he might get over there…  The planters are a size that would fit on our house’s exterior window sills, not the larger kind that have to get attached to the house with brackets, etc. 

That’s about it.  Since I’m not taking my little side trip on the way home, I will go to the gym, exercise in the basement or ride my bike.  The latter if it’s still nice after work. 

Nothing on the agenda for this weekend except, sadly, attending a wake for my friend’s mother.  Otherwise, I want to do some more garden stuff and get some outdoor activity/exercise in.  I’d like to go cycling.  Bf has been checking out ebay and craigslist for the parts we need to make our car roof rack fit on our current vehicle (rather than pay full price buying off the mfr’s site).  Times like this I miss our minivan - just throw the bikes in and go.  Those roof racks can get complicated because of all the components, but they’re useful. 

That’s about it.  This week, though short, was a real bear, so I’m happy it’s only a couple more hours til the weekend begins!  Have a good weekend everyone!

Not much to report.  The whole day was gray and gloomy yesterday.  I met a friend for lunch.  I had soup and a slice of pizza.  Filling.  After work, bf and I went to the gym.  Neither of us were enthusiastic about it, but we went.  That’s what happens when you get out of a routine – tough to get back into one.  We stayed about a half hour.  I did a lower body workout as well as some sets on the back and ab machines.  Dinner was pizza again (didn’t even think that I’d already had some at lunch). 

Nothing special at work, except a webinar this morning.  Tonight bf and I will go back to the gym again. 

Today I will make an appointment with a podiatrist as my right foot is still having problems. 

Not much to report today.  Food was so-so yesterday.  Lunch was a mandarin chicken salad from Wendy’s and a small frosty.  Dinner was a grilled chicken breast and corn.  Offenses were a bagel w/ cream cheese in the morning (after cereal for breakfast), the frosty, some bbq chips before dinner, and some tootsie rolls at the movie.  Okay, food was much less than so-so.  I need to log my food so I can see this kind of stuff.  I actually set up a log a while back that had columns with good, okay and bad.  Not really working for me.  I think I’ll print out the food/fitness record page I scanned from a log that I used in the past. 

I enjoyed the movie Angels and Demons last night.  I’d read a review that panned it, so my opinion was biased going into it, but it was better than I thought.  Naturally, the book is 99:99% of the time way better than the movie, especially with a book as loaded with details as Dan Brown’s books are (the two I read anyway).  My friend, who’d listened to the audiobook about a month ago, remembered all kinds of stuff in the book that was different than the movie.  I just looked at my book log (I try to log all the books I read) and saw that I read this book back in October 2006, so I feel better about not recalling specific details after nearly 3 years and almost 100 books later.  I just know that the movie seemed to move right along and of course couldn’t possibly go into the detail of the book.  I liked seeing Ewan McGregor again – I haven’t seen him in much lately – where’s he been?  I like him.  He was good in Moulin Rouge.

That’s about it.  Tonight will be the gym, for sure.  It’s not raining right now, but it rained a lot last night and the air is really damp and gross right now, and more rain is coming this afternoon.  I’m sure walking through the cardio area to get to the women’s locker room at the gym will be a real treat. 

Well, now it’s Tuesday, only 4 days til the weekend.  Weekend was uneventful (read on for the boring details).  Food was nothing great, weight is the same, exercise was nil.  Bah.  Tonight will be the movie Angels and Demons, which is over 2 hours, so wish me well staying awake.  Need to get back on track with the gym this week!  I’ve really let it go.

Just heard that my friend’s mother passed away yesterday.  My friend was caring for her mother for years - she was a diabetic and had kidney problems.  I will contact her tonight or tomorrow.  The friend that passed this news to me told me she lost her cousin to lung cancer at age 48.  Awful disease.  Having lost my father and brother in the past three years, it’s scary and sad to know that we’ll all be experiencing the loss of loved ones more as we age. 

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On Friday, I took a 3:45 train home.  I don’t recall what I did with my extra time that evening. I’m sure it was exciting and fun, LOL. 

On Saturday, I puttered around all morning, including making a shopping list and clipping coupons.  I finally left the house and went to a sporting goods store and bought a cable for my bike and also went to Petsmart - doggy had a gift card from Christmas from my mom (and her dog).  No bacon flavored nylabones, which he really likes - darn!  We’ll need to check online retailers for that.

After those two quick trips, I went to my blood donation appointment (same strip mall).  They switched me to a different kind of donation, and I agreed, but it took quite a bit longer.  It was for platelets, and I guess they keep platelets and return the other components, although they do keep some red cells and plasma too.  I guess they figure the volume of the platelets is so small (my reaction:  all that time just for that dinky amount??) that they keep some of the other stuff too.  Anyway, I wish I’d scheduled my appointment earlier in the day because this did take longer.  I also wish I’d just done a simple whole blood donation - this other process just wiped me out.  I won’t do that type again.  After that, I went to Trader Joe’s (next door), picked up a few things and headed out to pick up bf. 

We sold our treadmill to friends and the hubby came to pick it up by himself early in the afternoon, so bf drove back with him in his truck (I had the car) to help carry it into their house and set it up.  After we left their house, we bought some sandwiches for lunch, and by the time we got home I definitely needed to eat and rest.  By that time it was nearly 4 and I ended up taking a short nap in our hammock in the backyard.  I must have been really whooped that I could even fall asleep out there - it was really noisy - kids playing, dogs barking, yard work being done with power equipment – brother!  Bf let me sleep and went inside where it was quieter.

Bf went to a cookout in the evening without me because I knew I didn’t want to have a late evening.  I watched the rest of the movie I’d started watching during my blood donation (downloaded from netflix, how convenient).  I also downloaded the first season of the Office and watched the pilot episode because I’d never seen it.  I ended up staying up later than I thought, but slept well. 

Sunday I looked at the paper for a bit, then showered and went out to Wal-Mart for some stuff, and stopped at a couple other stores for a couple things on sale.   Lunch was soup and salad outdoors, and later on a couple of friends came over and we grilled dinner. 

Monday I continued the rock removal project in the yard, and bf mowed the lawn.  It got overcast and cool, but we stopped before the rain started.  We went to Chipotle for lunch, then to 3 home improvement stores but managed to wipe out our list – combination lock for my bike, light bulbs, chairs for the yard, and a battery powered weed wacker (old one was nothing but problems and we were looking at a $100 repair!).  We lazed around the remainder of the evening reading our books.  I had soup for dinner. 

I posted an entry yesterday.  I wrote it in word and thought I cut and pasted it…must never have published it.  Oops.

Yesterday was another nice day for weather.  The boss was out all afternoon with meetings.  I left early for the graduation.  Dinner w/ bf and his mom was Mexican food, and all of us had quesadillas. 

The ceremony was held in a large auditorium used for concerts (not at the school).  The whole thing was like a circus.  The man behind us really talked loudly, and the place sounded more like a nursery/daycare facility.  Seats were not ticketed or assigned, so people just brought the whole family - and it didn’t seem to bother them to have their kid fussing, crying, talking loudly, etc.  I guess there isn’t anything like decorum anymore.  Sure, I expected all the cheers when the grads received their diplomas, but the rest…wow.  Still, we were glad to celebrate bf’s sister’s achievement.  We took photos afterwards and got home not too late.

I stayed up late, however, to watch the AI dvr’s from Tues & Wed.  We fast forwarded through a good chunk  of the 2 hour finale, but it was still after midnight when I hit the sheets.  I’m going to be tired later today - anything less than 6 hours of sleep is not enough for me. 

I forgot I’d left my bike at the train station yesterday, so when I went to leave the house today, already running late, I realized I would never make it to the train on time.  Second time I missed my usual train this week.  Oops. 

I feel like this week has been very unproductive at work and I just wonder when I’ll feel like I’ve had a productive week at work.  I have several large projects going, but I’m constantly being sidetracked by other things.  I admit that I procrastinate on diving into the big projects, and spend more time on other less important tasks than I should, or guiding the new admin on lower priority projects she’s working on.  I jotted a list of things I can do to be more focused earlier this week.  I  haven’t implemented any yet, but I better!  The one thing I think can help the most is to block out specific times on my calendar for specific projects and not do any other work (or personal!) stuff during that time.  Putting in a solid hour or two on a project can accomplish a lot if there aren’t constant disruptions.  I also need to not let meetings derail my day. 

The office closes at 3 today.  I don’t have much planned for the weekend.  I need to do some shopping, as usual.  Did I mention that my Asics seemed to be causing a good amount of my foot pain?  I still need some good shoes, although both of my feet are feeling somewhat better.  Of course now I wonder if it wasn’t the Asics, maybe it was that I was still walking to the train at the time and I just happened to stop wearing the Asics when I started riding my bike to the train…  I don’t know.  Anyway, I still need shoes.  Also need a new cable for my new train bike.  I’d like to get a new lock, but the idea of a new combination lock doesn’t thrill me because the old combo is ingrained in my head, along with the combo of the lock I use for the gym.  Could I ever remember another?!  LOL.  It’s either that or deal with a key lock. 

I hope the weather allows for some time spent outside doing gardening projects!  There’s plenty to do inside too.  And I’d love to go out for a bike ride.  Interesting how I didn’t think about the gym until after all that other stuff.  Yes, I should go to the gym since my only exercise this week has consisted of some pushups, planks and ab work done in front of the tv a couple nghts. 

Okay, better PUBLISH this thing and go. 

I think my body is back to normal today after yesterday - the scale is back to normal too, albeit up a pound from my beginning of the year weight.  When I remember to, I log my weight and the date in my not very consistent weigh-in log.  My weight’s been very consistent the past 4+ years, too bad it’s consistently 30 pounds higher than where I’d be content at, LOL. 

Food was okay yesterday, except for a small frosty from Wendy’s after I had a salad there.  Dinner was grilled marinated chicken breast and garlic noodles (mix).

I thought the library program was pretty good.  I can’t say I learned much about recycling that I didn’t already know.  The title of the program implied that it would talk about controversies in the recycling world, but it was more about basic recycling, as well as reducing consumption and reusing, which also have a big impact on the volume of items that eventually get disposed. 

I would like to say that I’ll exercise tonight, but I think I might have to shop for a graduation gift for bf’s sister.  The commencement ceremony is tomorrow evening, so when will it happen if not tonight?  I’m leaving work  early to meet bf, his mom and his sis for an early dinner before the ceremony.  Bf thinks buying dinner will be his gift, but I happen to think this is a pretty big deal, and will urge him to reconsider and buy her a gift.  She deserves something nice!

The weather has been beautiful the past few days.  I go outside at lunch and don’t want to go back inside!  Living in the midwest climate, and after the long winter we had, it seems horrible and even sinful to be inside on days like this!  This weather also reminds me that I need to schedule some vacation time.  I’m going to take more than a week in summer - maybe a week in July and another in August or September. 

Okay, better publish this and get to work. 

Not much to report.  Last week was PMS week and I felt so bloated.  Today was the first day of TOM and I have been to the bathroom maybe a gazillion times.  Even though I drank a good amount of liquids today, I still think my body is letting go of all the water I must have been retaining the past several days.   Hope that’s all done with!

Yesterday bf adjusted my new (to me) commuter bike.  It’s very different from my old one.  It’s a cruiser style and you sit very upright.  It’s very comfortable to ride!  I didn’t take it to the train station today because I need a new cable for it.  I won’t go into how I ended up with a dollar store doggy tie out cable as my current bike cable, but it’s very thin, and I don’t trust it to adequately protect the like new bike. 

I’m skipping the movies tonight to go to a library program about recycling.

Last night I skipped the gym.   Shame on me. 

It covers the weekend, so I guess it’s okay that it’s at least as long as 3 separate posts. 

Monday again.  I had a nice weekend, kind of full though.  Friday after work I met some hs friends for a tour and dinner.  It was a tour of haunted sites.  I’m a skeptic with that stuff, but I’d never done that type of tour (I was the only one who hadn’t!), so it was fun.  There was a lot of history with it, so I found it interesting.  Dinner afterwards was pizza, since one of our group now lives in MN.  Had to help her get her fill of Chicago food!  It was a late night by the time I got home and wound down a bit and went to sleep. 

I woke up too early, and after a couple hours of puttering, I got cleaned up and went to the dentist.  No problems there.  Afterwards was some time at home.  I pulled some weeds, and then preened that area.  I hope I preened in time because there were a ton of dandelions and they were huge and many were already in bloom or had gone to the seed stage!  I felt sort of foolish, but I actually plucked off a ton of just the blooms/seeds to try and avoid even more.  We had lunch and hit a few garage sales.  It was our annual village garage sale.  We checked out a few that had advertised patio sets, but not surprisingly, all were gone by the time we got there as it was afternoon of day 2.  We checked out shrubs at home depot, but saw nothing we wanted.

In the evening we went to the annual dinner/auction for the rescue org from which we adopted our dog.  It was a nice event.  We took bf’s mother because we knew she’d like the auction part of it.  Our bids won a couple of the live auctions, so we have some cute stuff for us and doggy - and a one hour obedience consultation!  We all enjoyed it, and the food was pretty good.  I ate too much and I felt full for quite a while – I ate too quickly, and maybe that was because the auctioneer was talking so fast.  Twisted logic there.

After that, bf’s mother went home and bf & I went to a 40^th birthday party for a friend, and thankfully it just happened to be a few minutes away from the dinner.  I was tired from too little sleep the night before, so I was ready to go home within an hour, but of course we didn’t.  People were outside, but it got very cool as it got later.  They had a fire going, but the wood was smoking, so I didn’t want to stand near it.  I finally ended up going inside with the women in the group.  Didn’t eat or drink much of anything, since I was full from the dinner.  We didn’t get home til late and didn’t go to bed until about 2 am.  I got about 7 hours of sleep, so that was alright.

Sunday I spent the morning with the newspaper, and then got out in the yard.  I trimmed back an old shrub at the very back of our yard with lots of dead wood on it.  We’ve kept forgetting about it and so I’m glad I finally sawed, lopped and pruned it back.  We’ll see if it regenerates into something nice.  I’m not even sure what this thing is, but it had a few blooms on some of the green branches.  It doesn’t get much sun, so it may never really be all it could be if it got more sun. 

I also measured out the size of our fire pit vs. the size of some large paver blocks we had just sitting around and had bf lay out 4 blocks at the back corner of the yard and put the pit on top of it.  Now we have a permanent spot for it.  Bf kept moving the fire pit around the yard, especially when he mowed the lawn.  I wanted it away from the house and patio, but on a non-grass surface, so this should work out well.  We have a good sized pile of brush that needs to be burned, so maybe we can sit out one night this week and relax by the fire. 

We went out for lunch, then to Lowe’s, where we also didn’t see any shrubs we wanted for the front landscape.  We need to go to a nursery.  Back home, I finally started shoveling out the stone and gravel that the previous owner used for mulch in several of the beds.  What a pain.  The bad part is that I’m putting the stuff I shovel into a spot on the side of our house that I know we’ll eventually get around to doing something with.  So someday we’ll be shoveling it out of there.  But it already had rock in it too, so we’d be dealing with it anyway.  Of course it’s a very dry sunny area, so maybe we can plant a rock garden there…  In the meantime, bf tried to get our weed wacker/edger going and he couldn’t.  He also couldn’t get the rototiller going.  Both will have to go to the equipment repair guy, and so neither of us were very happy about that.  I hope the tiller can be resurrected.  We bought it last fall off craigslist and I was hoping we could use it to till the veggie garden.  I want to plant this coming weekend!

Dinner was baked tilapia / rice and broccoli.  We watched our American Idol dvr’d shows.  That was about it. 

Didn’t do anything I really should have done this weekend, including exercise, shopping or laundry.  But I liked that I did some stuff in the yard.  My eyes and nose don’t like it because of the allergies, but now that I’m in our hermetically sealed office space into which no fresh air or (pollen) passes, I’m already feeling better.  My eyes were very watery when I arrived, and now they’re not. 

What else?  We’re selling our treadmill and I think our friend that’s buying it will be coming to get it this week.  Tuesday I’m skipping movie night and going to a program at the library instead.  I think that’s about it. 

Another quick fly by.  Yesterday evening was not pleasant.  It was muggy after work and I felt warm and icky by the time I’d walked to the train, and after I rode my bike home from the train. 

The dog hadn’t eaten breakfast (been real picky since bf’s mother dogsat while we went to the funeral out of town).  We worried over that.  He did eat dinner though. 

BF went to the PO to mail something, but phoned saying he forgot some info written on the back of an envelope.  He had me looking for it and I couldn’t find it.  He was annoyed.  He came home, couldn’t find it, and grouchily left again.  He phoned back sheepishly saying it was at the PO where he’d stood filling out whatever, just that it was turned over and he didn’t recognize the envelope he’d written it on…  Then he phoned a third time asking what I wanted for dinner.  I was so annoyed with him phoning me.  I just wanted some peace. 

And another ick for last night was that I was working on Mt. mail.  But I made good progress and didn’t find any nasty surprises.  I’ve resolved, yet again, to attack this daily.  Why can’t I do this?  Shouldn’t it be a big ego booster for me to master the daily incoming mail?  Something I could control??

I didn’t exercise.  Dinner was won ton soup and dumplings.  The dumplings were these meat things inside a much too thick doughy outside.  Well over half the excess dough was removed.  These were not the nice dainty potstickers I like. 

It rained later.  Today was nice and sunny.  Don’t know about tonight.  I might just take the dog for a walk.  I’ll finish more mail.  I’ll bring the rest of my veg plants up to the 3-season room to start the gradual hardening off.  First inside, then outside on the patio in the shade, then in the sun.  Then time to plant! 

Okay, time to go home!!

Sigh.  Did I get anything done today?  The day flew by and it feels like I’ve accomplished nothing.  It’s not completely true, it just feels like it. 

And of course it’s stuffy as hell in here at this time of day.  By the time I realize it’s like this, it’s too late to call the person I think needs to be called.  Sigh.  Yesterday when I left the office, I stepped out of the elevator into the lobby and the temperature difference was sooo noticeable. 

 The movie The Soloist was entertaining.  I like Robert Downey Jr, so that’s a big part of it.  But it was just a good movie.  Somewhat sad, but good. 

We dvr’d TBL last night.  Maybe I’ll watch some of it tonight.   But I should also go to the gym. 

Okay, time to post this and go.  Hope it’s not raining.  I brought my bike to the train today in the rain, but it wasn’t raining hard.  I guess it’s okay if it’s raining lightly, but please don’t let it be pouring.  Okay, can’t wait to get out of this oxygen-less place and breathe!